Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP via Getty Images
Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP via Getty Images
Everton winger Brennan Johnson was in international action tonight, as he featured for Wales against Portugal.
Brennan Johnson has had a rather indifferent start to life at Everton since joining the club as part of a swap deal that saw Dwight McNeil move in the opposite direction to go to Crystal Palace.
He’s scored one goal so far, which came against Preston North End in the Carabao Cup. But he’s yet to open his account in the Premier League for the Toffees.
So the international break is a good opportunity to play himself into a bit of form ahead of returning to Finch Farm – and tonight he started Wales’ first Nations League A match against Portugal.
How Brennan Johnson did vs Portugal in Nations League opener
In truth, it was not the best night at the office for Johnson as Wales fell to a 1-0 defeat at the Estadio Jose Alvalade. But there were certainly some positive glimmers.
Portugal were looking to get off to a winning start under Jorge Jesus and they managed to do that with Joao Felix scoring the game’s only goal – and Wales, depleted by injuries, offered very little threat for the first three-quarters of the match.
Johnson’s first bright moment came just minutes into the game, as he picked the ball up around 20 yards out in a central position and drove into the box. He then worked space well for himself, but saw his cross blocked.
After making a good tackle to win possession high up for Wales, Johnson then rather drifted out of the game for a long period as Portugal dominated the ball.
He, David Brooks and Lewis Koumas worked hard up top, but none of them offered any real threat.
Johnson then stayed quiet for the most part in the second-half. But in the 75th minute, he did come alive again, latching onto a through ball after timing his run to perfection. He clipped the ball into the crossbar after being rushed by goalkeeper Diogo Costa. Ruben Dias then made a goal-line clearance.
It was notable that Johnson regularly came inside from the left wing looking to cause problems.
Towards the end of the game, he also cropped up on the right and also played through the middle to play alongside Kieffer Moore when he came on, underlining his versatility. He did put in one teasing ball from the right side of the pitch towards the end.
In injury-time, Wales had a counter opportunity, but Johnson’s ball wide to Sorba Thomas was slightly behind the winger, which resulted in a poor ball from Thomas and the end of the move.
So while it was not the greatest of nights for Everton’s number 11, there were flashes of liveliness. But Wales have three more games left for the winger to hopefully make an impression, with Denmark their next opponents on Sunday.
In an ideal world, he will score or assist in that game, or in the other upcoming matches against Norway and Denmark again before returning to Everton.
Jake O’Brien features in Republic of Ireland loss
Johnson wasn’t the only Everton player in international action tonight, with Jake O’Brien playing 90 minutes for the Republic of Ireland in their 1-0 defeat to Kosovo.
Ireland are coming in for criticism for a flat performance, with Kosovo having 23 shots in the game to Ireland’s three.
O’Brien drew criticism from some fans on social media for looking rusty.
Kosovo’s goal came from Vedat Muriqi, who reacted the quickest in the six-yard box to score after the ball had come off the crossbar. O’Brien was the nearest player to the striker but couldn’t quite get there.